- To mock Cervantes'
character is to fall into redundancy. You don't need to be a
Quixote to justify your existence, it would suffice not being part of
the windmills.
- I don't trust those who
never have enough time to establish a dialog. I don't trust
those who read and write in a lazy way. I don't trust those
computer idiots who read line-by-line and take more than one paragraph
as a presumptuous prose to justify that they are not able to catch the
idea in a speech. I'd spend some more time in telling you why
but I don't trust you.
- Salvador Dalí said that to
be a good painter you need to be a bit stupid. After twenty
years dedicated to the music I ended up thinking the same about being a
good musician. After more than half a life trying all kinds
of people I came to the same conclusion about being a good person.
- Living in the
present: three days ago you decided to turn left. The day
before yesterday you took the same decision, yesterday the same and the
same today. Without realizing it, after a long ride, you are
now in the same place as three days ago. But four days
older.
- Even being his right-hand
man he wasn't able to shut up in front of the last arbitrary rule taken
by the despotic leader.
“But, general…, why?!”
“Culture is in our ideals,” answered the
dictator.
- Fortunately, I've never
witnessed it; being a child I was told that if you tie a cord with a can
to the tail of a cat, the cat thinks that it's being chased and does not
stop running until it falls dead. I find interesting to look
for analogies in which a human being is the victim of this kind of
deceit, especially in my own life, aware that fear often nests in
ignorance. Surely I'd find more than one looking at the lives
of those who enjoy doing that to a cat.
- It's ever been
unquestionable for me that the subject is, by far, more interesting than
the object. In fact, if I had to leave right now the only I'd
carry with me would be the nice memories of those moments I've shared
with others without caring too much if working, dinning or playing
cards. As an illustrative example: I've never found any sense
in having sex with a prostitute. It'll seem a contradiction
but—perhaps deceived as anyone by what psychologists call “projection”—I
feel I'm talking objectively, from my own sane ambition and selfishness,
therefore I suppose I'm not more mature than those who see others as
simple utensils.
- Curriculum Vitae:
even those who threw the newborn baby into a dumpster experienced
motherhood.
- Since reason is my law,
being right does nothing but frustrate me.
- Lots of sayings, even
biblical proverbs, discourage arguing with idiots. But don't
follow this strictly unless you enjoy talking to yourself the whole
day. Or writing.
- Arguing for or against
any religion is a nonsense—I assume everyone is able to understand this
without further explanation. But don't blame yourself if you
fall into this trap, it's not always easy to distinguish those who argue
to clarify from those who do it to sell. At the end of the
day, every argument ends up being swallowed by this “black hole” that
religion is. In a world where “Why” and “What for” are
conspicuous by their absence, headed by economy and seconded by
politics, religion rules as it pleases, in some cases disguised as
science, to look modern. We have enough history on our backs,
enough empirical evidence that it's barely been a platonic dream:
scientific thinking is never going to have the last word.
- Who really understands
current global status quo realizes that, in most cases, the
constructive option is to stop constructing.
- Distinguish the
unnecessary to avoid useless movements towards better
effectiveness. That's to be wise.
- “It's easier to think
negatively,” I heard someone to say. How does this theory
explain most optimists are idiots?
- I've lost count of how
many tried to give me life lessons and teach me humility at the same
time, even within a few minutes of meeting me!
- The myth tells us
Prometheus stole the sacred fire from the gods and gave it to his
creation. Clearly he didn't act with “forethought” and well
deserved Zeus' punishment: has there been man on Earth able to really
benefit from power or, at least, to live amicably with it?
- Unlike lawyers,
politicians and people in general, a philosopher doesn't speak or argue
to defend himself or his immediate benefit, it's not his goal to defeat
an opponent, to win. A philosopher confronts truths like a
kamikaze, aware that, whether renouncing worldly benefits or
surrendering to an enemy, achieving his goal always means losing.
- Your best friend was
perhaps condescending; hiding how repulsive it was for him to discover
that you had your own point of view, he simply pretended to listen.
- An inexperienced young
man tries to advise someone much older. After twenty years
without seeing each other, they meet again, and the old man, to put the
other to the test, reminds him of that talk. “I don't
remember anything,” replied the young man, “if you do, it's surely
because my advice was wise.”
- Masturbation passed from
being considered sick and shameful (even unhealthy, not so long ago) to
embrace all aspects and levels of our existence.
- Of course, in theory,
everything done by humanity can justly be considered part of what we
call culture. But what I personally and intimately prefer to
believe that culture is (or should be), lives only in the consciousness
of a few minds.
- P.S. to Hobbyists:
surely many programmers have suffered anecdotes similar or analogous to
that of the famous free software guru with the printer in that
artificial intelligence laboratory. However, the lack of
freedom does not seem to affect most people at all.
- It's funny to hear from a
scientist that this or that species is at risk of extinction, even
funnier are the supposed ecological measures many people propose and
implement in this regard. For example, the case of a woman in
Catalonia who claims to be saving a native goat from the area by
breeding it on her farm and utilizing (commercializing) its meat and
milk; “If you want to save a species, eat it,” she
argues. Not to mention those who believe they're saving the
dog by adopting it as a pet or the owner of a castrated cat who believes
to help prevent abuse of animals by consuming soy
burgers. Alas, my lost androids of modernity! The
increasing process of degradation and destruction of life on this planet
by our hands began thousands of years ago, when we became sedentary; the
belief that any idea or measure born from us can reverse, slow down or
palliate this process comes from the same misconception that generates
it in a first instance.
- “By their fruits ye shall
know them,” said Matthew. Who would need faith if this
judgment were fair!
- It has always happened to
me that when I have mastered a subject I don't need it
anymore. God uses these tricks to remind us that we have no
power or authority over anything. That's why it concerns
me–despite I'm not too old–the feeling that I'm starting to learn how to
live.
- Do you want to play with
advantage? Let them win!
- God is a
child. We are his toys.
- It doesn't matter how
much money you manage. Either stream or great river you'll
just see the water pass by.
- Not even a mother is
unconditional. It's all about how you live, you coexist, you
negotiate. Someone who in our eyes is intelligent in this
sense may end up gaining our trust or even our loyalty.
- My late mother used to
say “Misery is not poverty.” Above livelihoods, skills and
circumstances, folk knowledge condemns its neighbor for its
psychology.
- Simply put, the way men
distort the truth to justify their vices and whims is disgusting.
- I think my wife and I
have been good parents. The proof is we decided not to have
children.
- Logic doesn't solve
problems but abstraction. Amputating a leg simplifies your
body but not your life.
- How we're going to
understand each other! A sparrow is killed by captivity, a
canary by freedom.
- Life taught me that to
eat you have to kill, as well as that, in general terms, the one who
really does the best for himself in the long run also benefits
others.
- For the prize “to be
right” they compete, so they strut their knowledge in front of the
audience. Oblivious to my motives, it baffles them not to see
me bark, growl like them for that gnawed bone, they don't understand
that for me to win is to be wrong, to grant. Then, naked, in
front of myself, my prize is the Truth.
- This has been a recurrent
situation in my life: individuals who, not understanding me, have
despised me, belittled me or even expressed feeling "pity" for
me. A problem that is exhausted in itself has no solution, we
can not help but feel pity for those who suffer from it, however these
individuals have inspired me rather frustration.
- The most experienced
blacksmith won't be able to improve a hammer if he loses the notion of
what it's useful for.
- As someone with a strong
vocation at an early age I realized that's not easy to find what you're
looking for. You can spend half a life digging just to find
out there is nothing there. So, even knowing that
charlatanism and vice reign in this world, I don't hurry to belittle
what is offered to me on the way.
- The pattern changes not a
minute before or one after but just when I begin to feel able to
predict. And I don't speak of a specific occasion, this has
always happened to me with everything throughout my life. How
can I interpret this recurring experience that's not like the pat on the
shoulder of an intelligent entity reminding me again and again that
neither science nor chance have the last word? For historical
reasons, as long as I can not think of a better one, God is a good
nickname.
- It may be the opposite of
what it seems to be…, or vice versa. :-)
- Not a few confessed to
me, some had to overcome their pride in doing so, that they considered
me a genius. Others, I could say the rest, saw me and treated
me like a fool. Significant is there was no middle
ground. I usually don't pay attention to these popular
ratings, but thinking twice, maybe I should, especially because geniuses
are seen as fools by those who don't understand them. And
because those of genius and fool are not mutually exclusive
conditions.
- After hurting yourself
and failing again and again, seeking pleasure in excesses, eventually
you mature and discover the pleasure of balance.
- It's true what a popular
saying of my country affirms: “Dios aprieta, pero no ahoga”
(literally: God takes you by the neck and squeezes, but not to the point
of suffocating you.) Isn't this a form of torture?
- I'm naked inside, that is
the worst indecency.
- “Honest” are those who
know how to lie.
- When you dream about
making up with someone you haven't seen nor been on speaking terms for
years is because, deeply in your mind, you're burying him alive.
- metastasis: man
conquer outer space, find and colonize other planets with life.
- “You are an asshole, like
everyone else.”
“I'm an asshole, but not like everyone else.”
- Children are born for the
same reason dead are mourned: selfishness.
- True love:
“What happens with you, Mary?” asks Joseph.
“I don't know.”
“Have
you fallen in love with someone else?”
“I did, many years ago, with
someone or something I imagined.”
- Do not forgive them,
Father, they know exactly what they're doing.
- “Art is cosmos'
voice.”
“Nice saying. Who is it from?”
“It's
cosmos'. It whispered it to my ear just now.”
- I've never felt like I
owned anything or anyone, not even myself. I've never had the
ambition to compete, to win. I enjoy a kind of freedom that's
unknown to most mortals.
- In our modern world, to
survive means to be able to brainwash yourself into believing your goals
are legit.
- In the country of the
blind the one-eyed man is a nobody.
- Perfection is a fetish of
mediocre people.
- Arrogance, ignorance,
stupidity are just circumstantial, the actual foundation of our fascist
world is collective denial.
- I'm going to know what
really matters to you the day that, in that, I see you do the exact
opposite of what most do.
- No revolutionary movement
comes from people. It's some politician implementing a
conveniently adapted version of an idea borrowed from a
thinker. If the revolution takes place and succeed it's just
to end establishing a new more profitable slavery
system. You'll hear those arguing about the thinker's
original idea, others blaming the twisting made by the politician but
the true is that this recurrent sad phenomenon we observe along all
human history is primarily determined by people's nature, this is why
it's unavoidable.
- In this world there are
those who have no head and those who have but do not use
it. It would sound funny if I didn't say it with total
objectivity.
- What makes someone think
that he says what he thinks when he does not think what he says?
- Culture is not something
you plan to do, it's just an unavoidable consequence of living.
- The path that they show
you as the easiest and fastest is the one that leads you right to the
slaughterhouse.
- There's no evil that
lasts a hundred years (but a replacement is not long in coming.)
- There is only one
scenario in which I can imagine an optimistic vision of this world
plausible (as I always clarify, I am referring to the world as man has
degraded it,) a circumstance even more fanciful than time travel: being
able to live going backwards, against the clock.
- Today everyone assumes
that the hammer has to also serve as a fishing rod, thermometer,
telephone… A few years ago I met someone who seemed to
understand how harmful this approach is but my relief turned into
greater frustration when I saw the poor fool, in his desire to simplify,
removing the handle from the hammer.
© Walter Alejandro Iglesias (from 2007 to
date.)
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